Research Rationale
We live in an age of increasing biological and cultural globalization that has been dubbed the "homogocene." Two of the greatest biological threats we face today are the loss of rare species and the invasion of new areas by exotic species. As species losses and biological invasions continue, the world becomes both more homogenous and more biologically depauperate.
The formation of local variants has long fascinated naturalists and biologists, and has been a central focus of evolutionary study since the field's conception. In the face of homogenization, the study of the patterns and processes by which organisms take on unique local forms takes on an increased importance, as it sheds light on how rare species become rare and how introduced species adapt to new locations.
Furthermore, the homogenization of the world's biota has been accompanied by the fragmentation of nearly every terrestrial habitat. For species with meta-population dynamics, dispersal across habitat barriers may make dispersal from similar habitats less frequent, and local adaptation more important for the persistence of species.
The extent to which organisms become locally adapted to habitats depends on the interplay of the degree to which habitats vary in important variables that impact fitness, the ability of organisms to respond plastically the environmental variables to produce appropriate phenotypes for the environment, and dispersal between the habitats. In my research I use a range of tools to look at the roles of dispersal, phenotypic plasticity, environmental patterning of macronutrients, and correlations among traits, as well as niche breadth and gene duplications in creating, maintaining, and disrupting unique local forms, or ecotypes.
posted by Eric von Wettberg at 9:27 PM
0 comments
